Susan Bennett – Introversion, ‘Coming out’ as the Voice of Siri, & Lucky Breaks – EP107
Season 3
Episode 107

Susan Bennett – Introversion, ‘Coming out’ as the Voice of Siri, & Lucky Breaks – EP107

Susan Bennett is an American voice-over artist. She is best known for being the female American voice of Apple's "Siri" since the service was introduced on the iPhone 4S. Susan and I connected a few months back and I was delighted when she agreed to be a guest on the show to talk about her career, overcoming fears, ‘coming out’ as Siri, the great fortune that has ultimately brought and how life has changed since. Susan shares her story and provides lots of bits of advice from lessons learned over the last few decades from her successful acting, voiceover, and musical career. Here’s a more detailed summary of the talk:
  • One thing learned in the last week?
  • An Earliest Memory – naturally drawn to certain things that would indicate what you’re going to do in adulthood
  • Early gifts as a child indicating work later in life
  • Getting a free grand piano as a gift & telephone
  • Creativity and Introverted from an early age
  • Not having the ‘Ta-da’ gene
  • A line of demarcation in childhood
  • Parents moving around a bit – this led to introversion * instead of coming out*
  • The power of social media to help for introverts to communicate
  • Starting a voice career by a happy accident
  • Having no accident
  • Getting a voice coach to develop the skills
  • Learning the skill of a voice over actor
  • Time required to practice as a voice actor
  • Having a natural feel for the voice over acting
  • The role of luck in her career
  • Working hard and getting luckier
  • Being curious and trying out new things
  • Learning as a value
  • Losing the process of learning new things
  • Taking 2 years to revel herself as the voice – wanting the privacy
  • A great life lesson – you have to take some risks
  • How Susan was chosen as the first voice of Siri
  • Working for Nuisance IVR Scripts in 2005 – recording these that then became the voice of Siri
  • Concatenation and creating the voice of Siri
  • Linguistic vocal coaching
  • 6 years later in 2011 finding out that Susan was the voice of Siri
  • Taking a few years to accept and spin it to her advantage
  • Face the fears and then so many wonderful things started to happen
  • The unexpected happens and you need to make decisions, and this brings change
  • Staying open minded and being able to adapt
  • Decision Making – Automatic answer is no? do a rethink!
  • Trying to get to yes!
  • Getting to know yourself and find out why you are the way you are!
  • How Susan worked on herself better?
  • Overthinking and Introverts
  • A typical day / week now for Susan
  • Setting goals – customize every presentation
  • Talk to the universe and do positive repetitions
  • Advice to live by?
    • Take some risks!
Books
  • The Biography of Leonardo Di Vinci – Walter Isaacson
  • The Lost Man – Jane Harper
Connect in with Susan on:
  • Website – susancbennett.com
  • On Social Platofrms - @siriouslysusan
  • Facebook - SusanBennettVoiceofSiri
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